Ju 290A-4, W.Nr. 165

[Richard T. Eger]

Dear RolandF and Kaiyan,

My gut feel is that the initial W.Nr. was 165 or 0165, as William Green claimed, rather than this being a pilot's Flugbuch shorthand. All entries for the type in Green's book are 4-digit. As I recall, some aircraft that had only 3- or 4-digit Werknummern early on were converted to 6-digit Werknummern as the war progressed, but not necessarily all. Thus, I'd like to have a source that is either original documentation or at least a secondary source that acknowledges the change.

I've been down this road before with the Me 262. Jurleit tacked on "10" to the front of some 4-digit numbers in a flight log pertaining to Me 262's constructed at Kahla. I believe that the flight log is all he had to work with and he elected to just tack on the "10" to make the number conform to the 6-digit standard. So, I am skittish to make the same mistake here without corroboration.

Adding to my suspicion is, according to Green, the fact that so few Ju 290's were ever built or laid down:

Ju 290 V1
Ju 290A-0 W.Nr. 0150
Ju 290A-1 W.Nrn. 0152-0156
Ju 290A-2 W.Nrn. 0157-0159
Ju 290A-3 W.Nrn. 0160-0164
Ju 290A-4 W.Nrn. 0165-0169
Ju 290A-5 W.Nrn. 0170-0180
Ju 290A-6 W.Nr. 0185
Ju 290A-7 W.Nrn. 0181 & 0186 with 24 more planned, but only a small number were completed
Ju 290A-8 W.Nrn. 0211-0220, but only 2 or 3 built
Ju 290A-9 W.Nrn. 0182-0184
Ju 290B-1 - only 1 built

Now, whether Green had a predilection for short W.Nrn., I can't tell. The Me 209 prototypes have 4-digit numbers, Me 210's had 3-digit W.Nrn., and an Me 410A-1 had a 5-digit W.Nr. In a postwar report on the Ju 290, one of its pilots gives a short history of the type only quoting 3-digit W.Nrn., so this makes me very cautious.

Regards,
Richard